Laundry, save money doing it?!

How do you sort your laundry?

How do you wash your laundry?

What kind of laundry soap to you use?


I sort our laundry into 4 groups:
I have whites which consist of all of my husband's undershirts, socks and white towels.
I have towels, jeans and sweatshirts/coats
Then I have "the rest". HAHA Which consists of my socks, our shirts, shorts, pajama bottoms etc
Then there is the kids' clothes, they get washed all by themselves.


I wash ALL of it in cold water and rinse in cold water. All of the loads are washed on normal except the kids', their clothes are washed on delicate. I dry on normal.

I've learned over the years, some from my mom and some from the internet, washing your clothing in cold water helps save you money in more way than one.

Cold water of course costs less than warm/hot water so it saves you there. Not to mention that it helps preserve the life of your clothes, so with them lasting longer you're not having to go out and buy new clothes, so it saves you money this way as well.

Another great way to help preserve the life of your clothes is to turn them inside out...Yup, that's right it helps keep the color looking bright longer! It is an especially important thing to remember to do if there are any "sticker" images/letters etc on the article of clothing. That helps keep it intact longer so it isn't all ratty looking! Drying them on low also helps too of course as it doesn't get heated as much on a normal dry cycle.


Lastly the laundry soap I use is the laundry soap I make. It takes just a little bit of time and makes quite a bit. It lasts a long time and the cost per load is less than $0.02. Can't beat that really! Another benefit to the laundry soap I make is that it is okay to use for cloth diapers, which we have! I use the laundry soap for all of our laundry instead having to switch between loads. Its great.

Italian Soda

Ever go to the coffee shop, such as Dutch Bros., Starbucks or any other shop? Have you ever purchased an Italian soda?

One thing that my husband and I do is get a $20 gift card to Dutch Bros. Reason being is that with getting the gift card you get a FREE drink, doesn't matter what it is, the size or the cost. We then use that $20 to occasionally get the happy hour special at our local Dutch Bros. (any cold medium drink for $2.50)

Some times I have our daughter with us and at which point she will ask for an Italian soda. She used to ask for smoothies, but decided one day she wanted an Italian soda and has stuck with that since.

Yesterday we were out and about getting some items for dinner and as we are close to the coffee shop she asks, "Are we stopping to get a coffee? I want an Italian soda please?!". I informed her we weren't because the happy hour specials are only Monday through Friday and from 1-4pm.

It got me thinking... I wonder if Walmart has the necessary items to make them at home? It was our next stop and I wasn't about to turn around and go ALL the way across town.

So, I told her that if Walmart did in fact have everything needed to make the Italian soda we could make one at home for her and buddy (her brother). She happily said, "Ok, mom.".

Wouldn't you know, Walmart DID have everything we needed to make them. Adalynn chose to get the vanilla flavored syrup as she wanted a vanilla flavored Italian soda.

Here are some photos to show the delicious Italian soda made by myself... they're so good that my husband had TWO last night, yes, the guy that doesn't like sweets. HAHA


So what we have here is Torani Vanilla flavored syrup, Darigold Half & Half and Mixer Club Soda. I chose those because that is what Walmart had and was more affordable than the other options. The Vanilla flavored syrup was because that's what my daughter wanted. 

I just used the fridge to get a few ice cubes in a glass

Next, I poured the club soda into the glass. It just so happen that what is in the glass is all that was left in the plastic bottle. 

 I took the Half & Half and simply poured it into the mix of the ice cubes and club soda. Not a lot, just enough that I thought it was good!

Then with the remaining room left in the glass I filled it almost to the top with the vanilla flavored syrup. No exact measuring/math was used for this. I did however, use a stir stick to mix once done and did a taste test before giving it to the kids. 

Once I was done and the taste test was finished. I scooped out an even amount of the ice cubes and placed them into the sippy cup for each of my children. I then poured the same amount in each of their cups. Of course it took me more time to make it (which wasn't a lot in my opinion) than it took for them to devour it!